A journey for this anvil

[ausfire]

Well, the next chapter begins.
I was just informed the seller has dropped off the Hay-Budden anvil in Ohio on his way to Quad-state. So now I have to wait till it lands in Australia. Not holding my breath.

[arkie]

You're gonna love that Hay Budden...great anvils.  Should be worth the wait.  How long do think it will take to reach you?

[ausfire]

My last post in this thread was August 2014 so I am pleased to say the anvil mentioned above has arrived in Australia. It landed in Brisbane yesterday and will travel north to its new home in my smithy later this month, once quarantine is cleared.

I have decided that it will sit on a stump which I have prepared in the smithy. I hear that Hay-Budden anvils have a very strident ring and I want to minimise it as much as possible. I intend to chain it down tightly (I hate wriggly anvils), but to quieten it down I want to bed it well. I am thinking a really thick caulking compound or bedding in fine sand. Not real keen on lead. What would be a sure way of reducing the ring?

Here's a picture of the stump the anvil will sit on. It is buried about 400mm in the ground and concreted in.

 

[VaughnT]

Good to see you back, Ausfire!

Bedding the anvil in silicone caulk or masonry adhesive (basically any goop you can find) will kill the ring to an amazing level.  You don't even need to add any chains or magnets to it.

I used masonry adhesive on my Wilkinson anvil and it ended up sounding more like a Fisher than I could have believed.  I can't say about sand, but caulk/adhesive between the anvil and stump is definitely better than magnets or chain wraps by several orders of magnitude.

[Frosty]

Your patience will be rewarded now try to breath till it gets in will ya?

I haven't tried things like silicone calk but bedding the Soderfors in dry clay helped some. The steel stand quieted that LOUD anvil to bearable levels. I can work on it all day without having my ears ring now.

Don't forget to post pics.

Frosty The Lucky.

[arkie]

ausfire, 

Congratulations on finally getting your anvil!

I mounted my 170# HB on a wooden base with a chain tightened down with lag bolts, no padding or other deadening required.  I didn't have a stump at the time, so I have just stayed with the block base.  No ring except at the heel area and I don't forge there that often.  I don't think you'll have a ringing problem with the HB like some others.  Have fun with it; HB's are great anvils.

 

Edited May 28, 2015 by arkie

[ausfire]

 

Don't forget to post pics.

 

​I will post pics the moment it arrives, Frosty. Early June I'm hoping.

Arkie, I like the way you've tied that anvil down using the coach bolts as tensioners. Very neat. I was going to use turnbuckles down the side of the block but your method is simpler and keeps the chain out of the way. Consider the idea stolen.

​

[ianinsa]

 I can work on it all day without having my ears ring now.

Don't forget to post pics.

Frosty The Lucky.

​So your hearing has deteriorated to an 'acceptable ' level?

You just can't have 'too much' sound deadening , use caulking, chains and magnets!

 

[Frosty]

HUH? Yeah, my hearing is deteriorated alright. The drills were powered with Detroit diesels and loud loud loud, then there were the safety hammers driving: casing, penetrometer rod and samplers, OR the shriek of auger in frozen gravels, glacial till, etc. I used to wear ear plugs and muffs and my ears would ring for a few hours after work.

Getting the left side of my head slammed into a tree sort of made it even worse on my left side. My left ear is at 37% while my right ear is at 93% of "normal" range.

Believe it or not, since the accident my sensitivity to things like the ring of an anvil is much greater, sometimes I can't stand the sound of dog food hitting a SS dish.

So yeah, I take precautions, my anvils are damped, I wear ear protection and even then it can be too much.

Protect your ears, you just never know when you might WANT to hear that truck coming.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[arkie]

​I will post pics the moment it arrives, Frosty. Early June I'm hoping.

Arkie, I like the way you've tied that anvil down using the coach bolts as tensioners. Very neat. I was going to use turnbuckles down the side of the block but your method is simpler and keeps the chain out of the way. Consider the idea stolen.

​

​If your anvil is still too noisy for you, you can always still wrap chain around it or use a big magnet.

[turbo7]

Coach screws wont hold as good in the end-grain of the stump, still might last a while out of the weather tho.

[arkie]

You can screw down some 2x6's, 2x8's, 2x10's, 2x12's or whatever you have handy on top of the stump to provide a "non-end grain" base.  Mine just happened to go through the 2-bys' into the 4x4's, but that approach would still be effective with a stump.

Edited May 29, 2015 by arkie

[Charles R. Stevens]

Longer screws for end grain

[ThomasPowers]

If you can find a blacksmith you can have them make a bracket that goes down on the sides of the stump and screws into the side grain...

[Frosty]

Another trick for getting screws to hold in end grain is pilot drill them and fill the hole with wood glue then drive the screw. The glue will be driven into the wood by the hydraulic pressure of the screw advancing into the hole and stiffen the wood significantly.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Dan P.]

I just ragged some giant spikes (10mm square with a good taper) and walloped them in good on the end grain, and she is sound as a pound. I put a few sheets of lead underneath to kill any ring, and the only sound made is a good solid thump. My stump goes about 18" into the ground, which means that if my wife is home she can tell if I'm working or not (forge is attached to the house).

[ausfire]

[ausfire]

Sorry about previous posting. The post box came up with heaps of quotes and I didn't know how to get rid of them. Strange things happen sometimes.

I just wanted to comment on Dan's idea of using lead sheets to deaden the anvil ring. Anyone else tried It? I found a bunch of lead sheets in the scrap and wondered if it would be as good or better than caulking. Dan seems to have had success with it. Any one else?

[JME1149]

I was amazed at how much quieter my HB was with just a big magnet placed on the underside of the heel

[ausfire]

I have just heard that the subject of this old thread, this long awaited anvil, has arrived in Cairns, just a two hour drive away from my place. The container is being held while inspections are made of the tractors that are in the container with the anvil. Perish the thought that a spec of contaminated U.S. soil could land on our pristine shores. Crazy. These tractors have been restored bolt by bolt and you could eat your dinner off the wheel cleats. Anyway, once Mr Inspector Sir is happy, they are heading up here and a 304# HB will find its way onto the stump I have waiting. The journey is almost complete. Watch this space... pics are imminent! 

 

[Frosty]

They cant be too careful you know. We make people take 3 showers before leaving the airport here.

I'll be watching for the pics.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ausfire]

As it turns out, Mr Inspector was not happy. A tiny amount of something was found in one of the chassis bolt threads of our 1932 John Deere and the whole container has been placed on hold until it is unloaded and cleaned. We are reluctant for high pressure steam cleaning to be done as it may damage the new paint on the tractors. My anvil couldn't care less about steam cleaning. A compromise is being negotiated. 

Anyway, the result is that our driver had a wasted trip to Cairns and has returned empty. So it will be next week now before the HB arrives at my smithy. I've waited 10 months now so I guess another few days won't matter. 

[arkie]

It's amazing...the inspectors over there found a tiny amount of something in bolt threads!!!  Over here the TSA screening agents at airports had a 95% FAILURE rate screening for prohibited items like weapons, etc. in test runs.....go figure.

[Frosty]

Somebody wasn't nice nice enough with the inspector. Nothing screws a job like somebody ticking an inspector off.

The truck driver may be the wrong person to interact with the inspector. Sometimes you just have to put on an understanding face and pretend to be nice. The owner or consignee is often the problem. Never NEVER raise your voice to an inspector the load could be sealed and locked down indefinitely waiting for clearance.

You might need to have your wife talk to the inspectorate's secretary to get it moving. Finding a spec of anything not a bug egg is a technical foul that says to me someone gave the inspector some grief instead of just keeping mum and going along. It sucks but it's life.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ausfire]

Perhaps they were jealous of our three beautifully restored tractors and want to give us a hard time. Who knows. Initially, the inspector passed them and all was ready to roll, but it was upper officialdom that caused the holdup apparently. I wasn't there so I'm getting the info second hand. 

Funny how Johnny Depp (aka Jack Sparrow) managed to get his two fleabitten mongrels into Australia without customs even knowing. A few red faces at customs over that! 

Anyway, all's well. Just a few more days' wait.

We really didn't want the tractors taken out of the container until they reach us. As you can see from the picture, the Wide Track John Deere is a VERY tight fit. The anvil is in there somewhere.